Hydro ph

BobThe420Builder said:

I use GH Flora Trio, calimagic, hydroguard, and koolbloom in flower, with RO water and never an issue

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Do you use air stones??

Yes I do


Maybe yer pump is filthy

I clean everything super well... like really well

Get rid of the airstone.
No need for that at all.
E&F does not need aeration.
And if you do 6 feedings a day your nutes will probably mixed enough, so no need for a waterpump or something like that as well.

Keesje said:

Get rid of the airstone.
No need for that at all.
E&F does not need aeration.
And if you do 6 feedings a day your nutes will probably mixed enough, so no need for a waterpump or something like that as well.

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So is that what is causing it or are you just saying get rid of it? Lol

I don't know what is causing it.
There can be many reasons.

But I do know that using air stones creates carbonic acid as CO2 in the air bubbles reacts with your water.
This can influence the pH.
So why not get rid of them, as the serve no purpose anyway?

I stopped running airstones because they cause pH fluctuations and add a lot more heat than you’d imagine. In drain to waste and flood systems, I just time a pump to “waterfall” for a few minutes before irrigation begins.

So, before I flood the table, the lift pump kicks on and literally just pours back into the res to aerate and mix, and then a separate pump kicks on 5 minutes later to irrigate. Then both turn off.

Easy. Less heat.

And being honest, I only do this because I run heavier partial organic nutes that settle sometimes. I end up with a higher EC at the bottom where the pump is. If I didn’t need to mix before feeding, I would ditch that. Just moving the water from point A to B in DTW and flood systems is plenty.

Indeed, Cinco: A pump in a rez for E&F is only necessary to mix your nutes.
Never needed for getting O2 in your water.
There is plenty of O2 available for the roots once the water drains.
(and also there will be some DO in the water anyway)

Silica naturally causes water ph to rise. Are you using a cal/mag supplement?

My guesses are Silica, air stone or order of how you mix nutes is your ph issue.

Silica has to be first before anything else.

If he added Silica in some way, I guess his pH would be high from the start.

I'm going to shoot In the dark here but you have a good pH meter

Okay so yeah I add silica first before anything. And then I add cal mag. I understand that my ph is initially high from adding silica, but after adding in all my nutes after that and I adjust down to 5.4 it just rapidly climbs up in 24 hours. I’ve read that it can take days for a few people to eventually reach 6.5. Once I get to about 6.2-6.3 is when I knock my ph back down